Notwithstanding the increased interest in energy conversion over the last decade, no substantial advance has been made in increasing the conversion efficiency of electric motors. Rather, the art has made incremental advances relating to improved magnetic materials, more powerful permanent magnets, and sophisticated electronic switching devices. Such improvements, at best, relate to very small increases in overall efficiency, usually gained at very considerable expense.
Patents in this area include: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,917,699; 3,132,269; 3,321,652; 3,956,649; 3,571,639; 3,398,386; 3,760,205; 4, 639,626 and 4,659,953. Also in this area are EPO patent no. 0174290 (March 1986); German patent no. 1538242 (October 1969); French patent no. 2386181 (October 1978) and UK patent no. 1263176 (February 1972).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,780,632, entitled “Alternator Having Improved Efficiency,” issued to the applicant on Oct. 25, 1988, describes an alternator having a single rotor canted at an angle.
The basic concept employed in earlier motor art is the interaction between a current carrying conductor (s) and a magnetic field of some kind. This fact is true regardless of motor type. This basic concept appears in DC motors, single phase AC motors, Poly Phase Induction Slip motors, which utilize a rotating magnetic field, and in Polyphase Synchronous Motors with externally excited electromagnetic cores, or permanent magnet cores as the case may be.
The only exceptions to this rule may be found in the design of stepper motors, which utilize a magnetic “ratcheting” action upon magnetic material in the armature, in response to applied pulses of current, and various types of reluctance motors in which the rotor moves with respect to a salient pole piece, experiencing a large variation in air gap during its motion.
The prior art has not produced a multiple phase, multiply segmented stator with individual, obliquely disposed, laminated armatures devoted to each stator section, such that each stator/rotor combination employs a continuous air gap of constant dimension, regardless of the elliptical profile of said armatures, but not employing any current carrying conductors, coils, windings or bars within or upon the armatures, as a means of producing torque upon the output shaft.